Friday, March 13, 2009

not buying it

since i've worked to cut out all unnecessary purchases from our budget, i continuously search for ways to continue to cut. the latest has been laundry soap. in the past, i've made the powdered version with it but stopped back when jaden or sage was born as it was too much at the time to grate soap.

thanks to my stock piling ways, i still have 2 14 oz bars of zote soap plus about 3 boxes each of borax and washing soda so i grated 1 bar today and added 2 oz to try making some liquid soap. i heated the water and dissolved the mixture on the wood stove and it is now cooling and waiting a permanent bucket to be stored in. it took very little tie at all so i have no idea why i quit doing it before. since i grated the entire bar, the next 6 times i make it i'll only need to measure and heat the ingredients. i shouldn't have to buy the ingredients for at least a year, if not more. one more expense i can cross off my list!

for st. patty's day this year, i'm going to attempt to make my own corned beef. i hate all the preservatives they put in the ready made ones from the grocer. i have the brisket, now i need to find a brining recipe and get busy!

just thought of another one! i've run out of trash bags so i'm reverting back to using plastic shopping bags...when i shop, i use canvas bags but still, those plastic bags creep into my house...people bringing me back egg cartons, greg doing any shopping (he always forgets the canvas bags are right next to him in the truck), my parents giving me anything (garage sale clothing finds, egg cartons, empty jars, etc). we only fill about 2 shopping bags a week so they should never run out.

I'll be interested to hear about your briskett brining experience. We brine hams, bacon and pork picnic shoulders regularly and they come out nice. I think corned beef wants to be saltier, though.

Our basic brining solution is 1 to 1-1/2 gallons of water with 1/2 cup of table salt (1 cup kosher salt), 1 cup sugar (or other equivalent molasses, honey, what have you) and spices. For roasts or bacon I like cinnamin, cloves, black pepper and anything else that smells nice.

"This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof." -Neil Gaiman

2015 Homestead Focus
-keeping the chickens and turkeys out of the garden
-straighten up the wild and unruly gardens
-growing more grains (millet, oats) and storage crops (root veggies, winter squash)
-purge excess junk in the house and shed